THE ROLE OF MARKETING

RESEARCH
Kristina Zikien
2013, Vytautas Magnus University

Nature of Marketing

Marketing is the activity, set of institutions,

and processes for creating, communicating,
delivering, and exchanging offerings that have
value for customers, clients, partners, and
society at large.
To make the right desicions, based on
marketing activities, management must have
timely decision making information.
MARKETING RESEARCH IS A PRIMARY
CHANNEL FOR PROVIDING THAT
INFORMATION.

KEY ROLES OF MARKETING RESEARCH

First, as part of the marketing intelligence

feedback process, marketing research
provides decision makers with data on the
effectiveness of the current marketing mix
and offers insights into necessary changes;

Second, marketing research is the primary

tool for exploring new oportunities in the
marketplace (f.e. segmentation research and
new product research help identify the most
lucrative opportunities for a firm).

Marketing Research Defined

Marketing research is the function that links
the customer, consumer, and public to the marketer
through information information used to identify and
define
marketing
opportunities
and
problems;
generate, refine, and evaluate marketing actions;
monitor
marketing
performance;
and
improve
understanding of marketing as a process. Marketing
research specifies the information to required to
address these issues, designs the method for collecting
information, manages and implements the data
collection
process,
analyzes
the
results,
and
communicates the findings and their implications
(American Marketing Association )

Marketing Research Defined

Marketing research is the planning,
collection, and analysis of data relevant to
marketing decision making and the
communication of the results of this analysis
to management.
What is Marketing Reseach?

ORGANIZATION

Collecting information

MARKET

Marketing Research Defined

Marketing research is defined as the
systematic
and
objective
process
of
generating information for aid in making
WHAT DOES
IT MEAN SYSTEMATIC AND
marketing
desicions.
OBJECTIVE?

Systematic means that information is not intuitive or

haphazardly gathered. The term connotes patient study and
scientific investigation wherein the researcher takes another,
more careful look at the data to discover all that is known
about the subject.
Objective means, that if the information generated, or data
collected and analyzed, is to be accurate, the marketing
research must be objective. The researcher should be
detached and impersonal rather than biased, attempting to
support his or her preconceived ideas. If bias enters into the
research procces, its value is considerably reduced.

Importance of Marketing Research to

Management
Marketing research can be viewed as
playing three functional roles:
Descriptive function
Includes gathering and presenting statements of fact.

The objects of Marketing Research

Marketing research is used to gather

information about:

Planning and Implementing a Marketing

Mix
Product Research
Product research takes many forms and includes studies
designed to evaluate and develop new products and to learn
how to adapt existing product lines.
Consept testing exposes potential customers to newproducts ideas to judge the concepts acceptance and
feasibility.
Product testing determines a product prototypes strengths
and weaknesses or whether a finished product performs
better than competitive brands or according to expectations.
Brand name evaluation studies investigate whether the
name is appropriate for the product.
Package testing assesses size, color, shape, ease of use and
other attributes of the package.

Planning and Implementing a Marketing

Mix
Pricing Research
Research for learning the ideal price level or
determining if a price high enough to cover costs;
Can help answer the question, is there a need for
seasonal or quantity discount?
Can help answer the question, are coupons more
effective than price reductions?
Can help answer the question, is a brand price
elastic or price inelastic?
Can help answer the question, how much of a
price difference is best to differentiate items in
the product line?

Planning and Implementing a Marketing

Mix
Distribution Research

Used to decide about retail sites or warehouse

locations;
May be conducted because the actions of one
channel member can greatly affect the
performances of other channel members;
Is needed to gain knowledge about retailers
and wholesalers operations and/or to learn
their reactions to a manufacturers marketing
policies.

Planning and Implementing a Marketing

Mix
Promotion Research
Investigates the effectivness of premiums,
coupons, sampling deals, and other sales
promotions;
Includes buyer motivation studies to generate
ideas for copy development, media research,
and studies of advertising effectivness;
Helps advertisers decide whether television,
newspapers,
magazines, or other media alternatives are
the best suited for conveying the advertisers
message.

Planning and Implementing the Integrated

Marketing Mix
The individual
elements of the
marketing mix do not
work independently
of the other
elements of the
marketing mix.
Hence, many
research studies
investigate various
combinations of
marketing
ingredients to gather
information on what

Classification of Marketing Research

Descriptive

v.s. Analytical
Applied v.s Fundamental
Quantitative v.s. Qualitative

Classification of Marketing Research

Descriptive
also known statistical Research;
include surwey and facts;
gather sociodemograpfic data.
Analytical
Use facts or information already
awailable

Classification of Marketing Research

Applied
Designed to solve practical problem of the modern world;
For example, applied researches may investigate ways to:

Improve agricultural crop production;

Treat or cure a specific desease;
Improve the energy efficiency at homes, offices...

Fundamental
Driven by a scientists in a scientific question;
The main motivation is to expand Mans knowledge, not to
create or invent something:

How did the universe begins?

What are protons composed of?

Classification of Marketing Research

Quantitative:
Used to measure how many people feel, think or act
in a particular way;
Many vehicle used for collecting quantitative
information, mostly researches use surveys,
observations and experiments.

Qualitative:
Used to help us understand how people feel and
why they feel as they do
It is concerned with collecting in-debt information
asking questions such as why do you say that
Depth interviews or group discussions are two
common methods used for collecting qualitative
information.

Classification of Marketing Research

Companies that carry out research
studies mostly do that for two
reasons:
identificate problem (Problem Identification
Research);
solve the problem (Problem Solving
Research).

Classification of Marketing Research

Problem Identification Research

Research undertaken to help identify problems
which are not necessarily appatent on the surface
and yet exits or are likely to arise in the future.
Examples: market potential, market share, image,
market characteristics, sales analysis,
forecasting and trends research.

Problem Solving Research

Research undertaken to help solve specific
marketing problems. Examples: segmentation,
product, pricing, promotion, and distribution
research.

Decision to Conduct Marketing Research

Resources are lacking;

Research results would not be useful;
The opportunity has passed;
The decision already has been made;
Managers cannot agree on what they need to
know to make a decision;
Decision making information already exists;
The cost of conducting research outweigh the
benefits